A competitive year for the B/C football squad

According to Coaches Gary Blom and Jon Wilson, this football season instead of playing a separate B schedule with the sophomores and a C schedule with the freshman, SJA decided to put both groups together and play one schedule.

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St. James Plaindealer - St. James, MN

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Posted Nov. 26, 2012 at 9:15 AM

Posted Nov. 26, 2012 at 9:15 AM

St. James Plaindealer

According to Coaches Gary Blom and Jon Wilson, this football season instead of playing a separate B schedule with the sophomores and a C schedule with the freshman, SJA decided to put both groups together and play one schedule.

The Saints did this for several reasons. One main reason for this change was to make sure the players were getting enough quality practice time.

In years past, with about 15 kids per grade out for football, the freshman by themselves didn’t have enough numbers for a quality practice (11 on 11 scrimmage setting) and more often than not the sophomores would not get many reps with the varsity group.

Making this change allowed for both classes to get more “game-like” experience. Another factor was that this years sophomores, having only played one full season with actual games, would benefit from this level of competition.

Overall this ‘trial’ went very well. The Saints were 2-2 in conference games (against other freshman teams) and very competitive in all but one of our games.

I think the kids would agree that they improved greatly as the year went on; even though we lost the last 4 games we played.

The coaches felt the season was very rewarding for both our players and for us. Our kids worked hard at practice and showed a desire to become better football players and also a better football team.